(a) Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for driving a headlamp shield and more particularly, to an apparatus for driving a headlamp shield, to simplify the operational structure of a bi-functional headlamp shield to reduce costs and improve quality.
(b) Background Art
Generally, vehicles include lighting devices which are used to illuminate objects in a traveling direction to be more easily view the objects when the vehicles travel during low light conditions (e.g., at night), and for signaling to inform other vehicles or road users of the vehicles operational state. Among vehicle lighting devices, headlamps, (e.g., headlights), are mounted at both ends of the front side of a vehicle to illuminate the path of the vehicle when traveling forward during low light conditions, thereby securing the driver's view in the traveling direction. Typically, headlamps require brightness for identifying front obstacles located a certain distance ahead on the road, and must diffuse light to illuminate the surrounding environment.
Additionally, headlamps should not obstruct the activity of drivers in crossing and on-coming vehicles due to glare or the like. For example, headlamps include a low beam mode and a high beam mode, which are switched therebetween by a driver's operation. To switch between and selectively use the low and high beam modes, conventional headlamps include low beams, that are turned on and used in an ordinary state during low light conditions, and high beams, which are turned on and used primarily in low traffic areas where streetlights or other vehicles are not typically present.
However, since light is illuminated using respective reflectors and lenses, and since respective components for the high and low beams are installed in the headlamps, a large space is required for components and the installation thereof. Accordingly, a bi-functional headlamp, that includes a shield driving device (e.g., a light distribution direction switching device) having a rotary shield to illuminate high-beam light (e.g., a high beam) and low-beam light (e.g., a low beam) that uses a single light source (e.g. an HID lamp), is typical used. The bi-functional headlamp illuminates high-beam light or low-beam light and adjusts the light reflected from the reflecting surface of a reflector via the shield driving device. In particular, the shield driving device is an actuator, and rotates the shield to have the 1 light illuminated downward (e.g., a low beam mode), or is simultaneously illuminated upward and downward (e.g., a high beam mode).
The above information disclosed in this section is merely for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.